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Showing posts from 2019

Salford City Council Collection

Deceased Online this week launches a new collection from the historic industrial city of Salford  Agecroft Cemetery, Salford Salford is renowned as one of the world's first industrial cities. Its proud industrial history includes pioneering social support for workers, including the introduction of the world's first free public library. As a settlement, Salford dates back to the Neolithic Age, and Ordsall Hall , a haunted Tudor house is evidence of its existence as a village on the River Irwell. By the 18th century, Salford had a small population. However, this was soon to change with the Industrial Revolution. By 1801, the area was home to  29,495 individuals, many of whom worked in the expanding cotton and silk factories or on the docks of the Manchester Ship Canal . A hundred years later in 1901, thanks to the local textile industry, this had grown to  296,210.  Sadly the early 20th century saw a decline in Salford's industry as a result of overseas competition.

Dickens, Cemeteries, and Christmas

This Christmastide, we explore the connections between the author of A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens, and the cemetery records in the Deceased Online database For many, Charles Dickens (1812-1870) is indelibly associated with Christmas. Besides the iconic   A Christmas Carol (published in 1843) , he also wrote the semi-autobiographical short story ‘A Christmas Tree’ (1850). Dickens loved the meaning and ritual of Christmas festivities. In later life, he enjoyed parties, and even in his poverty-stricken younger days, he always participated in the season. The ghosts in A Christmas Carol are believed to have been inspired by the stories told around the fire in his childhood Christmases that first inspired Dickens’ imagination to ‘hanker’ after the supernatural. Although Dickens is buried in the Poet's Corner of Westminster Abbey , the burial records of many of his family and friends are found in the Deceased Online database .   In our  Highgate Cemetery  Collection from

Cedar of Lebanon at Highgate Cemetery

Sad loss of well-loved and historic tree Sadly, Highgate Cemetery has reported the loss of, "its great old Cedar of Lebanon " The beloved tree predates the cemetery, having been planted more than 50 years before the  London Cemetery Company began its  layout began in 1836.   It is not known exactly how old the Cedar was, but it was believed to be at least 250 years   Highgate Cemetery’s layout on seventeen acres of the former Ashurst Estate by Highgate Village,  which was itself taken down to allow for the building of  St Michael's Church, Highgate  in 1830.  The areas lie on a steep hillside, facing the centre of London, and winding down Swain’s Lane past Waterlow Park towards Hampstead Heath, Dartmouth Park and Kentish Town. Garden designer,  David Ramsey , created exotic, formal planting.  Stephen Geary , the architect, and surveyor,  James Bunstone Bunning  designed the stunning monuments and chapels of what soon became London’s most fashionable cemetery. 

International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women 25 November

  Remembering Women in our Database for the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women 25 November has been declared the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women by the United Nations. Sadly, history contains many examples of violence against women, and our database is no exception. As the United Nations describes: Violence against women and girls (VAWG) is one of the most widespread,  persistent and devastating human rights violations in our world today  r emains largely unreported due to the impunity, silence, stigma  and shame surrounding it. In general terms, it manifests itself in  physical, sexual and psychological forms. To further clarify, the  Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women   issued by the UN General Assembly in 1993, defines violence  against women as “any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or psychological harm or sufferi

RootsTech London 2019 and New Subscriptions

Thank you to all those who visited the Deceased Online team at last week's RootsTech London  Demonstrating the database at RootsTech London Jamie and the team from  Deceased Onli ne  had a great time meeting the many thousands of visitors to   the Excel  centre in Docklands for   RootsTech London . The stand saw a constant flow of visitors keen to find their ancestors in the burial and cremation records on  Deceased Online database . We love meeting database users and would like to thank everyone who dropped by to see us on Thursday 24th, Friday 25th and Saturday 26th October. RootsTech London 2019 was the first international RootsTech conference and has been hailed a tremendous success.  RootsTech is a global family history event, hosted by FamilySearch International , where people of all ages learn to discover, share, and celebrate their family connections across generations through technology. The show was aimed at everyone - whatever their experience in family histo

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor Event 31 October 2019

In honour of Black History Month , Camden Local Studies and Archives  Centre  is holding a special event honouring Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, who is buried in Bandon Cemetery Samuel Coleridge-Taylor On Thursday 31 st  October at 7.15pm, Camden Archives and Local History Centre hosts a talk with music for Black History Month by Richard Gordon-Smith (composer) and Martin Anthony Burrage (violin, piano) of the Samuel Coleridge-Taylor Foundation. The venue is significant as it is located in the street where the celebrated composer was born. Although he was born in Holborn, now in the north London borough of Camden, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor's was buried in Bandon Hill and his record can be found in Deceased Online's South London Collection.  Search the database for the full set of burial records for  Bandon Hill Cemetery , Wallington , in the  London Borough of Sutton . Bandon Hill is situated in Plough Lane, Wallington SM6 8JQ and is a working cemetery. However, today bu

International Day of Peace 2019

This week's blog marks the International Day of Peace 2019 and Gandhi's 150th anniversary by remembering  a friend and colleague of Gandhi in our collections The United Nations International Day of Peace  takes place each year on 21 September to celebrate a  peaceful society is one where there  is  justice and equality for everyone. The theme for  2019 is: “Climate Action for Peace”.  The United Nations Member States adopted   17 Sustainable Development Goals   in 2015 to ensure peace through the protection of human rights for all. The Sustainable Goals include poverty, hunger, health, education, climate change, gender equality, water, sanitation, energy, environment and social justice.   Sustainable Development Goal 13 “ Climate Action ” is a call for immediate action by all to lower greenhouse emissions, build resilience and improve education on climate change.   Today highlights the importance of combating climate change as a way to protect and promote peace throu

Oxford City Council Collection on Deceased Online

This week I look at the full collection of burial and cremation records on Deceased Online from the historic city of Oxford By Hannah Johnston - Instagram, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=81470779 In August 2018, Deceased Online added  almost 50,000  burial and cremation records from  the Oxford cemeteries of Botley, Rose Hill and Wolvercote,  from   Oxford City Council . In July 2019, r ecords for the fourth   cemetery,  Headington Cemetery,   were uploaded to the database .  Records from 1899 to 2007 are available to search and view, with burial and grave register scans, a grave section location map, and details of other burials in the grave. Headington Cemetery records    digital scans of all burial registers up to 2007  computerised data 2007-2016 maps showing the section in which the grave is located grave details for each of the graves and their occupants.  History of Headington Cemetery By the mid-nineteenth century, Headington u